That Fatal Disease
by Ziggy Sternenstaub
Summary: Ferocious and masterful rulers, Vader and Palpatine existed in a realm apart from even their most determined enemies, and feared none of them...save that one that could never be seen; could never be touched.


A/N: I wrote this almost a year ago, and it pretty much sat on my hard-drive doing nothing, so after a short final edit I am finally sharing it with this small corner of the world.

**That Fatal Disease**

By Ziggy Sternenstaub

"_Most fatal diseases had their own specific odour, but ... none was as specific as old age."_

-GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ, Love in the Time of Cholera

The crisp and delicate melody produced by the friction of imported Nubian beetles' wings beating against their glittering bodies was almost unnaturally loud in the stark splendour of the Imperial Gardens at sunset, and Darth Vader's electronically assisted hearing perceived every note of the insectoid symphony. The limpid song briefly soothed Vader's customarily dissonant mind and prepared him for his encounter with the emperor, who he had been informed was spending a rare evening alone in these very gardens.

So it was that the apprentice was unusually relaxed when he cleared a tall hedge and saw the bent, slight silhouette of the master. Reverently, gracefully, Vader descended to one knee and lowered his helmet. The emperor's narrow feet, shod in expensive dark leather, filled his frame of vision.

"Master," the huge warrior intoned, and waited.

For some time the imperial sovereign said nothing, his attention entirely focused on the small bird perched on his hand. Palpatine was stroking its wings-probably black, and strikingly glossy under the sunset that resembled nothing so much as a blazing, crimson filigree soldered to the dome of heaven. The bird seemed perfectly happy to allow the contact, largely untamed though it was. Vader did not sense his master actively wielding the Force, but lower animals were often susceptible to the mere wishes of the gifted.

"Lord Vader," the emperor finally acknowledged. His voice was the creaky, colourless rasp of the aged, but the well-trained resonance of a master orator still gave it weight. "You wished to make your report."

"Yes, Master," Vader responded between breaths. His eyes, unseen, tracked the emperor's bony hands as they stroked the small bird.

"I am pleased that you do so in person, Apprentice. It has been too long since you have stood before me."

Vader clinically noted that he was not standing at all, but naturally did not correct his master on such a technicality. "I am honoured to stand in your presence, Master," he merely rejoined.

Palpatine smiled slightly; seen through the glare of the younger Sith Lord's goggles it was secretive, almost coy. "I am certain that you are, Vader. Now what is it that you wish to tell me?"

Wishing a little wistfully that the emperor would tell him to stand and relieve the pressure on his prosthetic knees, Vader reported his recent successes in the field. The majority of what he said was already known to Palpatine; Vader sent regular updates from Executor, after all, but some minor triumphs remained yet unrevealed.

"My technicians also intercepted a suspicious transmission _en route _to the Alderaan system. I suspect Rebel activity, but the message was of insufficient substance to pin on Bail Organa."

"Ah, yes, the good senator," the emperor mused as he lowered himself to sit on the short stone wall running parallel to a long row of exotic Kashyyyki shrubs-shrubs which stood twice again as tall as he. "An opponent of unanticipated cunning. My empire has done him a favour the republic never did, Apprentice-uncovered his talents for espionage and dissidence."

"Rumour has it that he plans to surrender his position next term," Vader rumbled.

"To his daughter, no doubt," his majesty snorted indelicately. "The change will make no difference to the political sentiments of the Alderaan system, and the only change it will make to the Prince Regent is that it will give him more time to actively devote his energies to that nuisance that calls itself a revolution."

The emperor reached out with his free hand and grasped one gleaming shoulder plate, raising his apprentice up to sit next to him on the wall. Vader would have sighed with relief had he still been capable of such spontaneous exhalations. "There is no need to dwell in such discomfort, dear boy," Palpatine chuckled. The crows-feet around his eyes crinkled with genuine, if malicious, mirth.

Vader said nothing, knowing very well that if he had stood or sat before permission had been granted, the consequences would have been memorable. He suspected that this was the joke.

"You like birds, don't you, Vader?" the emperor abruptly inquired.

Unprepared for this _non sequitur_, the younger man hesitated. "I…suppose, Master."

"Nonsense. I recall that you like them…or perhaps it was only that one bird. Do you remember it? You were ten years old and already been visiting the Chancellery office for a half Standard. I took you the Republic Exotic Bird Preserve-do you recall?"

Vader shifted on the wall, discomfited as usual by talk of the past, but knowing that he must respond. "Vaguely, my master."

"Hmph," Palpatine grumbled, evidently dissatisfied with this equivocating. Still he continued without more explicit criticism. "You took in the plenitude of colourful, exotic animals with wonder but little real interest until you saw a small brown bird, pale and plain as a sandy desert. Perhaps it reminded you of your former home, of the mother that you missed, or perhaps you were merely rooting for the underdog, as you were wont to do, having so often been the underdog yourself," the emperor chuckled with apparently fond mirth. "Whatever the reason, you fell instantly in love with that little bird, which surely went otherwise completely unnoticed among its more flamboyant fellows."

Unbidden recollection teased the younger dark lord. He could almost see that little bird again, and the chancellor smiling at Anakin proudly, but they were both distant, as if Vader were trapped at the bottom of a deep pond, flat on his back and looking up at the untouchable surface.

"I must admit that I found this fierce interest in such an unprepossessing animal unexpected, and quite thoroughly charming. I took you back several times to see the little bird…" Palpatine's voice dwindled to nothing, and Vader resumed listening to the soothing frenzy of the beetles. How unburdened they were by the past, by both the pain and glory of attachment… They were louder now that the sun had completed its descent, and darkness settled on the gardens. The bird in Palpatine's hands was likely the only one still awake; the others had all settled into sleep by now, cradled by the shadowy branches above and all around.

"Anakin?" the emperor demanded suddenly, loudly.

Vader flinched and shifted, but responded as expected. "Yes, Your Majesty?"

"Are you listening?" A gratingly petulant note crept into Palpatine's voice.

"Yes, my master."

The monarch regarded his lieutenant suspiciously for a moment before abruptly returning to his reminiscing. "You were clearly enchanted with the creature, and I indulged the infatuation by taking you to the bird sanctuary far more often than I had originally planned. But when it seemed you wished to go every time we visited, I arrived at a more agreeable solution."

"You asked me if I wanted to keep it," Vader interrupted softly, unwittingly.

"Yes…Of course, I could not give it to you entirely; the Jedi would have seen a pet as the worst sort of frivolous attachment. But I did acquire the creature and a large, elaborate cage in which to house it. I kept it in my office, though truthfully I found such a thing tedious at best. I have never had much use for lesser animals, I'm afraid, at least not since enduring my own master's exotic and unpredictable house pets."

Vader did not react to this, having heard the emperor's vexed accounts of Plagueis' bizarre menagerie many times before.

"Strangely," Palpatine continued, "I recall very few of the times you played with the bird in my office. Though my memory is usually excellent, clarity is reserved for that final visit, after the bird perished. I had been out of the office for much of the day, and so I did not know that the creature had died until it was too late to warn you. You arrived only moments after I did, delivered by the ever-loving Kenobi, who little approved of the visits even then…When you saw the bird lying there, so small and still…your grief was _exquisite_."

The emperor grinned with twisted amusement. "You were devastated. I do believe you grieved for that useless animal almost as much as you did for your wife."

"Highly unlikely, Master," Vader rumbled icily, unable to stop himself from rising to the obvious bait.

Palpatine chuckled gleefully and patted the armoured shoulder next to him. "Perhaps not," he conceded, still laughing a little, "But you were quite upset." There was a teasing glint in his eyes, which were paler tonight, untouched by their usual eldritch fire. Vader wondered if they might not even be blue, and tried to picture it, but like so many other things from before, the calm, cool colour was almost impossible to recall.

All at once the warrior reached the end of his endurance. He was irritated by the unprompted references to his former life, as well as discomfited by the emperor's peculiar mood. The rigid architecture of the garden felt suddenly, stiflingly unnatural, and Vader could think of nothing he wanted more than to leave.

"With your permission, my master, I will depart now. I have a great deal of work to do before _Executor_ leaves spacedock."

He gave a bow from the waist in an effort to soften the request, but the emperor only stared at him, a deep frown lining his already deformed features. "You are quite eager to quit my company, Apprentice." His voice lacked almost all expression, but his eyes began to glow.

"_Executor_ launches again in less than a week, my Master," Vader reminded his sovereign carefully.

"And having just finished one long mission, you do not intend to rest tonight?"

Vader paused, sensing a trap. "I will of course sleep, but if I am to have a full night's rest-"

"It is barely past 19:00 hours. You plan to retire immediately?" Palpatine demanded coldly.

"Master, I was awake quite late into the ship's night." _Making your deadlines, _he thought with helpless fury.

His majesty snorted derisively. "Hardly anyone's fault but your own, Vader, and now you intend to run off just moments after arriving."

Darth Vader fell silent, floundering for a response that would not further provoke the old man's unpredictable temperament.

"Well," Palpatine bit out curtly, "I can see how it is. You have no further interest in my company."

"Master, that is untrue," Vader could not resist protesting, even knowing that he would be rebuked for it.

"Insolent liar! Do not dare to contradict me-I am your emperor!" Unseen energy crackled in the air about the master of darkness, and Vader thought he smelled ozone, the auger of something terrible growing in the distance.

_Storm's coming, Ani…_

Careful to conceal his growing resentment, the apprentice bowed low once more, but his prostration was not enough to appease the aged monarch.

"How ungrateful you are, _Lord _Vader," Palpatine whispered poisonously; stressing Vader's title; reminding him of all he owed his malevolent sorcerer-king.

"Yes, my master," Vader intoned expressionlessly as he knelt once more, surrendering himself completely. Now was not the time for provocation or defiance.

"Yes, my master; no, my master; three Gungans and a shoe, my master," Palpatine mocked his student, and the ancient voice rose and fell with strikingly childish cruelty.

Entirely disconcerted by this bizarre levity, and increasingly annoyed with the entire encounter, Vader did not respond in any way.

"_Answer me!" _Palpatine hissed, sharply raising his empty left hand. Unwittingly, Vader flinched in anticipation of the violent electrical currents that would short-circuit the equipment necessary to keeping him alive. Instead the emperor's right hand met the left in front of his chest, where they cupped the unnaturally quiescent bird.

Vader watched these movements with a sense of uneasy anticipation, and he was both horrified and enthralled by the sphere of light that emerged from his master's fingertips. It grew quickly to envelope his skeletal hands and the little bird, whose mute terror and agony permeated the Force in the brief moment before it was utterly consumed by fire.

The emperor emitted a gasp of obscene satisfaction, smacking his lips lightly before brushing his hands off, one against the other. Small motes of ash drifted down to merge with the dusty path below. Vader followed the particles with his eyes until he could no longer determine which was ash, and which stone.

"It would be pleasant if you were to take time away from your terribly busy schedule to visit me more often, Vader," Palpatine said witheringly. He reached out with one gnarled finger to briefly tap the younger man's upper arm, just below the shoulder-plate. Vader felt a shock run through that part of his body that was still flesh., and when the master pulled back, he felt bereft and even more isolated, though he knew the gesture had in no way been intended as comfort.

Seeming abruptly bored, Palpatine stood up and hobbled away on his cane, absently dismissing his apprentice with the wave of his free hand as he went. Yet Vader remained on one knee for some time, while the light of the ornate garden lanterns plated him in molten gold.

_The soft afternoon sun filtered through the huge bay windows on the far side of the warm red office, but the small blond boy felt as cold inside as he had in deep space with only a threadbare blanket to warm him. The little brown bird he cradled in his golden hands lay motionless while Anakin held his breath to stop the painful sobs that threatened to escape._

_A long, warm cloak, red as the walls, was wrapped around him with warning, and Anakin tilted his head back as the supreme chancellor sat down beside him and tenderly pulled him against the man's thick, quilted robe. _

_No words were spoken, but it helped._

* * *

_Finita la commedia_, and thank you for reading this small meditation, which I hope you found at least moderately thought-provoking.


End file.
